At the end of September Adam and I drove way up to the west coast of Scotland to embark on a four night, five day yacht trip. It was the first time either of us have spent the night on a sailing yacht, and I’ll just say, a few days was enough for me! We had some turbulent seas for a few days and let’s just say I was glad to get to shore after breakfast in the morning!
We took off after work on Wednesday, stayed over just outside of Glasgow, and made the two hour drive to Tayvallich to catch our boat. The boat belongs to one of my clients, Laurie, who runs yacht charters for most of the year. Being in Scotland, I’d only ever talked to him on the phone, and when he had two spots left for a few day trip with a stop off in Jura for a folk music festival, we jumped at taking them.
Now a cruise like this might not be for everyone, it’s tight quarters, and unless you book as a group of four you won’t know the other two people that will be sharing these tight quarters with you. We however love meeting new people, and we couldn’t have been paired with a better two ladies than who joined us. Madge and Marge from Newcastle kept our cheeks hurting from laughing and even had been sailing with Laurie before so knew a bit about what to do. 
We were welcomed aboard with home made shortbread, coffee for us and tea for the ladies. Once we’d all settled our stuff in our cabins, gone over the safety checks, put our life vests on, we were off! You can help as much or as little as you’d like, but really it works best if everyone can help. We all worked the ropes to draw the sail up, steered the boat, and got generally bossed about the whole time. I’d like to say I would remember what to do if I went again, but there’s no way I could sail a sailing yacht again without someone telling me what to do! 
For our first day, it was smooth sailing, literally. The sun was out, we were all on deck in sweaters instead of big jackets, and the water was nice and calm the whole way to our first stop, Gigha. The next day on the other hand was something entirely different!
Have you ever been sailing before? Are you yay or nay sleeping on a boat?
